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22 minutes ago, TxTower said:

And yet Higgys one of the few actually getting productive AB’s.
Our lineup is a sad state of affairs but Boch knows what he’s doing.

I turned it on last night right when Joc pinch hit for him

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37 minutes ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Welcome back, Dane. 

 

36 minutes ago, gofuckyourself said:

Dunning Dunning'ing

When he was DFAed we all knew he was gonna re-emerge and notch his first career save in his first appearance right?

Posted

CY is done fucking around

https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/rangers/2025/04/29/texas-rangers-chris-young-president-offense-bruce-bochy-donnie-ecker/

 

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sportsRangers

The Rangers’ offense is running out of time, and Chris Young is running out of patience

If Texas continues its offensive spiral, the Rangers’ president is prepared to move on to more drastic changes.

By Evan Grant

Rangers beat writer/insider

Apr. 29, 2025

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Updated 9:53 p.m. CDT

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5 min. read

Texas Rangers general manager Chris Young (left) and manager Bruce Bochy respond to reporters questions during a post season wrap up press conference at Globe Life Field in Arlington, October 1, 2024.(Tom Fox / Staff Photographer)

ARLINGTON — The Rangers have tried all the basic fixes for their somnambulant offense.

They have shaken the lineup like a dirty martini and the results have been filthy, but not in a good way.

Hitters met for 45 minutes before the start of the Athletics series. On Tuesday, the entire team was on the field for batting practice, which used to be the norm, but is definitely not in these days of private individual hitting instructors and a good Facetime signal. The reason for the great attendance: It was mandated.

Now, Chris Young, the president of baseball operations, is prepared to move on to more drastic changes.

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Related:Panic button? Rangers’ slow offensive start shifting from early slump to dire concern

“I’m edgy and rightfully so,” Young told The Dallas Morning News Tuesday during the well-attended batting practice session that preceded a 15-2 offensive breakout over those homeless A’s. “We play this game to win. This team is built to win. And when we‘re not performing our best, we should all have an edge about us that allows us to get back to the best version of ourselves.”

Young built this Rangers team to score runs in bunches and, painful as it may be, before going any further, we‘ve got to point out that whatever it is doing, it is not that. The Rangers began the 30th game of the season Tuesday last in the majors in runs per game, 29th in OBP, 27th in batting average and 26th in OPS. There are a bunch of other ugly stats, too, but sometimes a few basic numbers can sum it all up.

All of this is downright difficult to Young, who watched the offense go to sleep a month into the last season only to never awake. The Rangers couldn’t hit fastballs, so the lineup was reshaped to be more fastball-forward.

Now, the Rangers are swinging at everything. Consider this: Adolis García, hitting seventh, at least for now, entered Tuesday leading the major leagues in percentages of swings on pitches outside the zone. It was a 25% increase over his rate at this point last year. And that wasn’t the worst chase stat on the team. Leody Taveras had a 30% increase over this point in 2024. And that isn’t the worst. Jake Burger is chasing at 36% rate; at this point last year, first baseman Nathaniel Lowe was chasing 24% of the time, making it an increase of 50% at the position.

“It’s one of our major issues,” Young said. “Swing decisions. Chase rates. Lack of walks. There is no doubt we‘re not putting enough pressure on opposing pitchers and not creating opportunities to score.”

As Young said all this, the edge in his voice was evident. But so was the passion in his belief that this team can turn it around.

Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy (left) talks with president of baseball operations Chris Young during a spring training workout at the team's training facility on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025, in Surprise, Ariz.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

To that point, since the DH Era began in the AL in 1973, there have been 66 clubs that had team slash lines that included an OBP of less than .300 and a slugging percentage of less than .400 after 29 games and 14 of them went on to have winning records, five made the postseason and two won the World Series. It’s doable.

Young, however, isn’t going to wait around as long as he did last year. It was at his insistence that the full squad took batting practice together and stressed situational hitting Tuesday. And he‘s not done. Next up: Personnel changes. In case you haven’t noticed, the Rangers appear to have all but moved on from Leody Taveras in center field after more than 1,800 career plate appearances. Though Taveras started Tuesday against Oakland lefty Jacob Lopez, it was only his third start in the last nine games and it only came because Kevin Pillar’s back tightened up.

And this is without a true full-time alternate center field option on the roster. Evan Carter is playing well at Triple-A and is expected to play more regularly this week than he has all season. The Rangers are also watching Alejandro Osuna at Double-A.

“I had two core beliefs as a player,” Young said when asked about Taveras. “It’s a performance-based game, and the game owes you nothing. The reality is we‘re built to win, and the players who perform will get the playing time. I don’t think I can state it any more clearly than that.”

No, he can’t.

Others should probably take notice of that, too. García’s WAR since the start of 2024 is the third-lowest of 124 qualifiers; his wOBA (weighted on base average) is 112th. He is one spot ahead of Marcus Semien. Both players have already been dropped from their customary spots in the lineup. Young isn’t looking to make changes, but he also can’t deny the numbers.

If that doesn’t work? He couldn’t deny the possibility of considering further changes, which, at that point, means the staff. Though that would run very much counter to Bruce Bochy’s philosophy. In 28 years of managing, he‘s never made an in-season change to his coaching staff. Young’s not going there yet. He still has belief in much of the roster. But, on Tuesday, he made it clear that if the Rangers can’t get more patient at the plate, he can’t be much more patient, either.

“We have guys going well at Triple A who, if things don’t improve, we obviously will have to consider,” Young said. “I can’t run from that. But, at the same time, I believe in this group and their baseball cards. And I believe they are going to turn some of their seasons around. But it’s up to them to do that.

“I truly believe in these guys. I believe in our staff, but I also recognize that we‘re at a point in the season where we are statistically last or at the bottom of the league. Things have to change. That’s inevitable. We cannot continue performing like this and expect to be a winning team. So it’s all of our jobs, collectively, myself, the front office, the coaching staff and the players, to start changing that.”

 

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